''After a year in the making, and with very little fanfare, Microsoft last month launched Small Basic, a free programming language aimed at kids.'' [source]
Why make a new language, and with a complex concept like dot-notation?
Taking a look at the environment and at the language, perhaps it is simpler to introduce kids to Javascript!
I think anybody can make a simple javascript-enhanced html page to do the same things:
- variables and values
- if
- for loops
- printing text
- drawing images
I actually did something similar a couple of years ago: there is a simple text-area to write the code in, a button to run, and the right half of the page shows the ouput.
If I rewrite it now, using the HTML5-standardized CANVAS tag, I can also provide graphics, and the ease-of-use will be almost identical to that of Small Basic...
(perhaps I should write a similar environment, put it online and post about it... :> )
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
SmallBasic? No thanks.
By at 12:28
Section: computing 4 kids, Programming languages
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